At Iowa's three public universities, not only is the cost of tuition going to rise, it's also likely to get a lot more complicated.

With the Iowa Legislature offering less state money than requested, the presidents of all three public universities have said that “everything is on the table” when it comes to setting tuition rates for the 2016-17 academic year and beyond.

Less-than-expected state funding last year led to a $100 increase for resident undergraduate tuition for the current semester at Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. In December, the Iowa Board of Regents approved a similar increase for the University of Iowa for fall 2016.

But ISU, UNI and UI leaders say they aren’t going to limit the likely tuition increases this fall to just resident undergraduate students. They are considering possible tuition hikes for every student on campus.

"We're trying to figure out what’s the best way (to meet our needs) through increases in tuition for residents, nonresidents and differential tuition — or maybe some new models, like charging more for our students later in their academic program than at the beginning,” ISU President Steve Leath said after last week’s regents meeting.

UI President Bruce Harreld and UNI President William Ruud said they were taking similar approaches as they look to additional tuition revenue to make up the difference between the $6.3 million in state funding approved by lawmakers and the $20 million requested by the three institutions.

“(We’re) looking at all the possibilities ... and then looking at other models that other states have gone to in terms of what they might be doing with tuition options and tuition opportunities," Ruud said.

Changing tuition models

Although recognizing that tuition hikes are likely, student leaders at the three universities continue to call on legislative leaders and the governor to improve Iowa's investment in higher education.

"In the past few years, our student government has been fairly supportive of incremental increases in tuition of about $100 a semester,” said Katie Evans, the former president of Northern Iowa Student Government. “But most students think this burden shouldn’t increasingly be placed on students. The state should be increasing its appropriations.”

Without more money from the state, the regents have charged Iowa’s public four-year institutions with proposing changes to their tuition structures that could fundamentally alter what current and future students can expect to pay.

“What we have asked the universities to do is not just look at raising tuition this year, but to look longer term at what makes sense for the universities in (this) competitive world,” Regent Bruce Rastetter, president of the board, told reporters last week.

About the only thing off the table, based on Rastetter’s comments, is the possibility of having the board set annual tuition increases.

"Each year, this should be a process for us in which we ask the state to be partners with the university as supporting state appropriations,” Rastetter said. “So I think It would be inappropriate for us to say that we’re just going to consistently raise tuition without the state being our partner.”

A fair share

Cole Staudt, president of ISU’s student body, said he recognizes that ISU needs more revenue to maintain the quality of education during a time of profound growth. But he would like to see any tuition increase be spread evenly across campus.

“I personally am in favor of an across-the-board increase,” he said. “It’s more affordable if everybody just pays a fair share.”

To make up the difference between the $2.2 million offered by lawmakers and the $8.2 million requested by ISU, every one of ISU’s 36,000 students would have to pay about $166.

For UI, there is a $3.2 million difference between the university-requested $4.5 million and the Legislature-offered $1.3 million. If spread across UI’s 32,000 students, making up for that difference would require about $100 per student.

UI student leaders are working to ensure that any proposed increases will not be “overly dramatic” and that the regents will give students “sufficient time and warning” of the specifics for the increase, said Rachel Zuckerman, president-elect of UI Student Government.

At UNI, a greater need for funding spread across a much smaller student body would require a significantly higher amount per student. Each of the university’s 12,000 students would need to pay an additional $406 to make up the $4.87 million difference between the $2.78 million offered by lawmakers and the $7.65 million requested by the university.

Evans said student leaders at UNI probably would not be supportive of the administration trying to address its revenue needs by creating more differential tuition rates for specific colleges or programs.

“We already have that for (upper-division students in) the College of Business,” she said. “Many of the students already come to UNI for that liberal arts education and small-classroom experience. I don’t think we should implement differential tuition any more than we already are.”

Here are some options for various additional revenue models that university administrators and regents might be considering either expanding or introducing at UI, ISU and UNI.

Differential tuition by program

What is it?: Charging more for some programs and majors than for others.

Who does it?: Differential tuition is becoming a more popular way of raising revenue at institutions nationwide. Of the 143 research-intensive institutions studied by Glen Nelson of Arizona State University, nine offered differential tuition during the 1991-92 school year. The number went up to 30 for the 2000-01 academic year, 72 for 2007-08, and 86 for the current academic year.

Nelson, who wrote his dissertation on the topic in 2008, said such totals are difficult to compute because there is no standard definition for differential tuition among colleges and universities. Institutions often call these price differentials tuition surcharges, programmatic fees and a whole range of other creative names.

In the tuition and fees approved by the regents in December, UI already proposed differential tuition for the 2016-17 academic year for students coming into its undergraduate business and nursing programs. ISU likewise proposed differential tuition for students entering its architecture program.

Pros: In general, it costs more to educate an undergraduate engineering major than to educate an undergraduate English major, Nelson said. Raising tuition for more expensive programs would better align the revenue collected with the costs expended.

“The argument is that, since business and engineering students tend to make more after graduation, there shouldn’t be a problem with them paying more for tuition,” said Thomas Harnisch, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

Cons: "The case against differential tuition is that students should be allowed to explore different majors and programs without having to worry about additional costs,” Harnisch said.

Increasing the costs for a specific program also can decrease demand for the program so universities wind up with less additional income than projected.

Nelson said there are further concerns that first-generation students, and students from under-served communities, might be discouraged from pursuing certain majors because they are more expensive.

Differential tuition by year

What is it?: Charging more for tuition for junior- and senior-level classes than for freshman- and sophomore-level classes.

Who offers it?: In the tuition and fees approved by the regents in December, UI already proposed differential tuition for upper-division business students as well as different tuition levels for second-year and upper-division engineering students. ISU has differential tuition for upper-division students in business, engineering and agricultural systems technology. UNI has proposed differential tuition for upper-division business students.

Pros: The instructional per-student cost to the university for a smaller, senior-level class is higher than for a lecture hall-size, first-year class. Raising the tuition rates would better back the instructional costs borne by the institution.

Cons: As with differential tuition for programs, the higher pricing may scare off otherwise qualified students from enrolling in the program. Moreover, the differential provides a financial disincentive for students who already may be experiencing trouble following through on their degree programs.

Raising/removing cap for maximum credit hours

What is it?: Students are considered full time at Iowa’s three public universities if they are taking 12 credit hours during a semester. They aren’t charged above that level for any additional classes taken during the semester. The universities could raise the cap so that students would be charged for taking credit hours above 12.

Who does it?: None of Iowa’s universities.

Pros: The additional tuition revenue would help offset the less-than-requested amount of additional state funding.

Cons: The current system is set up to give students an incentive to take more classes per semester and thus improve their odds of finishing within four years or less. Removing that incentive would make it less likely students would try to cram an extra class or two into each semester.

Such "tuition plateaus," Harnisch said, also make it easier for families to plan in advance for how much tuition could cost. Adding more moving parts and sliding scales may discourage and confuse prospective students.

“Some students — especially first-generation students — might just throw up their hands and say, ‘What’s going on here?’ ” he said.

Athletic funds to benefit academic programs

What is it?: Calling on UI and ISU to have money from their lucrative contracts with the Big Ten and Big Twelve athletics conferences passed on to each university’s academic programs.

Who does it?: Athletics departments at all three universities indirectly pass on revenue to academics through the tuition paid by scholarships offered to student-athletes. Athletics at UI and ISU are largely self-supporting, but UNI, which has a much less lucrative contract with the Missouri Valley Conference, annually passes millions from its general fund to athletics.

“Given the dramatic increases in all of the media rights, licensing, fan tickets and all the rest, are we to the state where we might (go) to the next level and actually have athletics support on an ongoing basis a portion of the academic side of the institution ... while maintaining our competitiveness on the field?” Harreld said after last week’s regents meeting.

Cons: ISU’s Leath said he would “love that to happen,” but pointed out that ISU's athletics budget, when compared with those of its peer institutions, already means the Cyclones are "playing with an under-resourced department."

"The other side of this is, we're all facing a number of very large, comprehensive series of lawsuits related to athletics," Leath said. "It's unclear how those would be ruled upon. ... So before we would change our budget structure to put money back into academics, we'd want to at least get (beyond) some of these immediate lawsuits."

Higher tuition, higher aid

What is it?: Some schools justify tuition increases by promising to set aside a specific amount of that increase for financial aid, Nelson said. The purpose is to ensure that students of means are helping to subsidize students who come from low-income families or underrepresented groups.

Who does it?: The Iowa regents had a program that set aside tuition for decades that earmarked about 20 percent of tuition paid by every public university student to scholarships for others. Statewide criticism and political pressure led the regents in 2012 to agree to phase out the program over a five-year period.

Pros: "The reason most universities do this is not to generate more net income, but sometimes to address the so-called quality question — in that there is a perceived lack of quality associated with low tuition," Nelson said.

Cons: Many Iowa lawmakers and parents complained that families struggling to pay full college tuition for their children shouldn't be burdened with also having to pay tuition for the children of others.